Back to REALITY

Well, we got back really late last Monday night and after doing all the laundry and re-organizing and cleaning our house, I got sick. So now that I am feeling better, I can rejoin the living and post something.

This goes out to my sister Kara who has bugged me to update. So here you go Kara!

We were so spoiled by going to Hawaii in the first place. We did so many fun things while we were there. Being gone for 12 days really made us miss our kids. And they missed us too. Braeden still tells us he misses us. He has been so cute by kissing Mark and I and coming up to us out of the blue and saying "I love you." It is too cute! I am going to give a quick recap of everything we did. But this is mainly for journal purposes so I don't forget where we went!

Day 1: Flew in and drove straight to the North Shore area. We stayed at such a nice hotel. But once we got there, we were tired from all travleing and being 3 hours ahead of Hawaii time, so we just ordered a pizza, watched American Idol and "Hung Loose"

Day 2: Spent the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. That was a great experience. We had a tour guide and that made the day go smooth because we wouldn't have known where to go or what to do without his help. Basically everyone who worked there were LDS students from BYU and they even had a part of the center with couple missionaries. It was cool to go through the PCC. I learned more than I thought I would.

Day 3: Drove around looking at all the different beaches like Sunset and Pipeline Beach, but then we ended up at Laniakea Beach and watched Mark do some surfing.

Day 4: Mark and I watch LOST and knew they filmed it in Hawaii. We had no idea we would be staying so close to where they filmed it though. Almost everything is filmed on the North Shore and one of the hotel workers said they just had a photo shoot a couple weeks before we were there and some of the cast went to the Turtle Bay restaurants for dinner. So we just missed them. But since this day was Sunday, we decided to do some driving around and take pictures of LOST spots. One guy told us where to find the crash scene of the airplane, but we didn't have time to go to it because we wanted to make it to sacrament meeting. But we did get some pictures of some scenes.

This is the infamous Banyan tree that Charlie was hung on.

This is the waterfall that Kate and Sawyer swam in when they dicovered that dead body. This is called the Waimea Valley and it was beautiful. We had to hike about a mile to get to this waterfall but well worth it.

This is what the entrance to Waimea Valley looks like.

We also had time to stop by Sunset Beach to watch the sunset!! Kind of cool!! Some of my favorite pics we got!

Day 5: Packed up and headed to Wakiki for the day until our 7:30 flight out for the Big Island (Kona) On our way to Wakiki, we stopped at the Pali Lookout. Just as we park, a bus full students get out and make their way to the same place we were going. Well, you know the stereotype of Japanese with their cameras. It was hilarious because these girls saw these American guys and asked to take picture with them. They were all giddy and laughing and we couldn't stop laughing at them. So Mark went over and decided to take a picture of them taking a picture with these guys. So classic. You have my inlaws in the background laughing at them, another girl (on the right) checking to see if her picture turned out and the other girls being cheesy and flirtatous. It was quite comical. Anyway, we did get some pics of the lookout and it was beautiful (as usual).

We walked through some shops in the heart of Wakiki and then had to head to the airport for our flight to the Big Island.

Day 6: An old friend of Mark's family lives in Kona, so he told us some really neat places to go see and he also took Mark surfing one day. So we spent most of the day at the beach!

It is so hard keeping track of one person is the water when they are surfing. The sun is reflecting off the water and everyone's swimshorts look the same. Sometimes you can tell who is who, but this day, I couldn't tell which person was which.

I took this picture thinking it was mark, but it clearly is not him. But since it was the only picture that turned out, I am posting it anyway!

Day 7: We really wanted to go snorkeling and Mark's friend told us where the best place was. It was an awesome beach with fish and turtles everywhere. We had so much fun there.

You can barely see the turtle, but I am touching a turtle. We bought one of those underwater cameras and it wasn't the best camera. But at least we got something.

It wasn't snorkeling in the Caribbeans, but we saw some awesome fish! Unfortuneately, we didn't get any good pictures with the fish!

Day 8: We had been staying in Mark's uncle's condo and it has a really cool lagoon next to it. So we spent the day there and did some snorkeling there. That water was so clear and we saw a lot of fish too.

This is the condo, our room was on the other side.

And this was the little private beach that actully belonged to the hotel next door but we went there anyways. The condo is to the right of this picture.

The waves crashing by the power of Almighty Mark!

I just thought this picture was cool with the blue water.

Day 9: DO's and DON'Ts of going to the beach!!

DO..... come with someone you love!

DON'T.... come with someone squeezing into her friend's size 2 swimsuit.

DO.... have fun in the water with a decent swimsuit with the one you love!

DON'T.... leave the beach without a cover-up so when you have to climb those rocks, nothing falls out or is exposed.

We had so much fun at this beach, Kua Bay. Except that everytime we looked up, this couple kept walking by us and the girl was obviously proud of her swimsuit. Had to take a picture to capture this beauty!!

We spent all day at the beach since we knew this was our last day to be at the beach. After we were done, we took a shower and headed to the shops that were really close to the condo.

Day 10: This was probably the highlight of the trip. We were able to go on a helicopter ride around the whole island.

It was cool because there was actually an active volcano that had erupted. So our pilot flew us around that volcano. Pretty fun since we have never seen an active volcano before.

This is the lava flowing into the ocean. You can actually see a stream of it heading for the water. And if you look close, you can see a boat really close to land. The pilot said they have been out there twice to rescue that guy. He just gets too close to it then has to rescued and even after that, he still goes out there. I would tell him he was out of luck if I had to rescue him again!

Then we flew to the other side which is where Hilo is and there are way too many cool pictures to post for that. But here is just a sample. Lots of cliffs and waterfalls!! Way too beautiful!

We took so many pictures but that I don't want to post them all. But this really was a fun day and we were just way too spoiled for that!!

Day 11: Well, this day was Sunday so we decided to take a drive over to Hilo, which is the other side of the island.

This is Waipio Valley Lookout!

Akaka Falls

Forrest saying "hi" to Lieutenant Dan

We found some caves on our way over that were so cool. Kuamana Caves. One view is from the top of the stairs and the other is obviously from inside the cave.

Just standing on some old "Hot Lala" (as Braeden calles it)

Day 12: Packed up again and dropped off at the airport. Spent all day either in a airport or on a plane. Didn't get in until midnight. Got to my parents house and smothered our kids with hugs and kisses. I can't believe how long we left them. My sweet mom who decided she would take them 10 out of the 12 days we were gone. WHAT A SAINT!!! She knows how Braeden is a homebody and always wants to be home, so she stayed at our house and let Braeden go to school. I can't believe she survived, but she did and I can't thank her enough!! Thanks MOM!! Braeden had some of "his best days ever" with you!! (from the mouth of Braeden) WOW, what an experience! We had too much fun! And thanks to Dianna and Bob for taking care of us! We didn't expect much, but you did more than we could have asked for! Thanks for it all!